4.0 Provisioning Virtual Machines

Provisioning is used to get a Novell® ZENworks® VM ready to start in a running state. The Orchestrator Server automatically looks for the best VM host machine to run the VM on, unless you have specifically designated another server to run the VM.

Provisioning adapters on the Orchestrator Server abstract the VM. These adapters are special provisioning jobs that perform operations for each integration with different VM technologies.

The ZENworks Orchestrator Server uses provisioning adapters to perform life cycle functions for the VMs and allow the Orchestrator Server to control them. Provisioning adapters are programs that provision (start, stop, snapshot, migrate, or pause) a VM. They run just like regular jobs on the Orchestrator Server.

The system can detect a local store on each VM host and detect if a local disk might contain VM images. The provisioner puts in a request for a VM host. However, before a VM is used, the system pre-reserves that VM for exclusive use. That reservation prevents a VM from being “stolen” by any other job that’s waiting for a resource that might match this particular VM.

The constraints specified to find a suitable host evaluate machine architectures, CPA, bit width, available virtual memory, or other administrator-configured constraints, such as the number of virtual machine slots. This process provides heterogeneous virtual machine management.